Cheese and its economical uses in the diet

Thicken the milk with the flour and just before serving add the cheese, stirring until it is melted.

This sauce is suitable to use in preparing creamed eggs, or to pour over toast, making a dish corresponding to ordinary milk toast, except for the presence of cheese. It may be seasoned with a little curry powder and poured over hard-boiled eggs.

Same as cheese sauce No. 1, except that the cheese is increased from 1 to 2 ounces.

This sauce is suitable for using with macaroni or rice, or for baking with crackers soaked in milk. (See p. 27.)

Same as cheese sauce No. 1, except that two cupfuls of grated cheese or 8 ounces are used. This may be used upon toast as a substitute for Welsh rabbit.

Same as cheese sauce No. 2, save that 2 tablespoonfuls of melted butter are mixed with the flour before the latter is put into the milk. This sauce is therefore very rich in fat and has only a mild flavor of cheese.

Mix the water, bread crumbs, salt, and cheese; add the yolks thoroughly beaten; into this mixture cut and fold the whites of eggs beaten until stiff. Pour into a buttered baking dish and cook 30 minutes in a moderate oven. Serve at once.

The food value of this dish, made with the above quantities, is almost exactly the same as that of a pound of beef of average composition and a pound of potatoes combined. It contains about 80 grams of proteids and has a fuel value of about 1,300 calories. Estimated cost, 18 cents, calculated as explained on p. 23.

Prepare as in previous recipe.

The protein value of this dish is equal to that of 1⅛ pounds of potato and beef, the fuel value, however, being much in excess of these. Calculated cost (see p. 23), 22 cents.

In making either of these fondues, rice or other cereals may be substituted for bread crumbs. One-fourth cupful of rice measured before cooking, or one cupful of cooked rice or other cereals, should be used.

A comparison of the recipes for the two fondues may indicate the general principle on which the recipes in this bulletin have been worked out. The second recipe is one commonly found in cookbooks. In the first one, the butter has been omitted and water substituted for milk and the amount of cheese is slightly increased. This makes a somewhat cheaper dish and one which is less rich because its percentage of fat is not so great. For this reason it is easier to adjust to the ordinary bill of fare. A dish in which there is combined cheese with its large percentage of fat, butter with its 85 per cent of fat, and eggs with their 10 per cent of fat, is too rich to admit of being combined rationally with other fatty dishes. It therefore limits the number of dishes that may be served with it, making milk soup, for example, or dishes containing white sauce or those containing much butter or oil seem out of place. The omission of butter from the ordinary recipes and the substitution of water or skimmed milk for whole milk may perhaps be the means of making cheese dishes more wholesome and more generally acceptable.

Another advantage of omitting butter from cheese dishes and of substituting water or skimmed milk for whole milk is that it makes it possible to increase the amount of cheese without making the dish too rich. This is of advantage to those who like the flavor of cheese, and also, because it tends to increase the tissue-forming value of the dish, particularly if skimmed milk is used rather than water.

Soak the bread in the milk. Melt the butter and add the cheese. When the cheese has melted add the soaked crumbs, the eggs slightly beaten, and the seasoning. Cook a short time and serve on toasted crackers.

Since it consists of essentially the same ingredients, the food value of this dish is obviously much the same as that of fondue made in other ways.

Heat the rice in the milk, add the other ingredients, and cook slowly until the cheese is melted. Serve on crackers or toast.

The food value is not far from that of a pound of beef of average composition, and the calculated cost (see p. 23) is 15 cents.

Melt the butter and cook the pepper thoroughly in it. Make a sauce out of the flour, milk, and cheese (see p. 23); add the corn, cheese, yolks, and seasoning; cut and fold in the whites beaten stiffly; turn into a buttered baking dish and bake in a moderate oven 30 minutes.

Made with skimmed milk and without butter, this dish has a food value slightly in excess of a pound of beef and a pound of potatoes. Calculated cost (see p. 23), about 20 cents.

Cook the cornstarch in the butter; then add the milk gradually and cook two minutes; add the cheese and stir until it is melted. Season and serve on crackers or bread toasted on one side, the rabbit being poured over the untoasted side. Food value is that of about three-fourths of a pound of beef. Calculated cost (see p. 23), 13 cents.

Cook the butter and the flour together, add the milk, and as soon as the mixture thickens add tomatoes and soda. Then add cheese, eggs, and seasoning. Serve on toasted whole wheat or Graham bread.

Into the melted butter stir the cheese until it, too, is melted. Then add the corn and pimiento, stir for a moment and add the egg yolks beaten and mixed with the tomato juice and the salt and paprika. Have ready the bread toasted on one side and very lightly rubbed on its untoasted side with the garlic cut in two. Pour the mixture over the untoasted side of the bread and serve at once. A poached egg is sometimes placed on top of each portion, making a very nutritious combination.

Cook the macaroni in the boiling salted water, drain in a strainer, and pour cold water over it to prevent the pieces from adhering to each other. Make a sauce out of the flour, milk, and cheese. (See p. 23.) Put the sauce and macaroni in alternate layers in a buttered baking dish, cover with buttered crumbs, and heat in oven until crumbs are brown.

A good way to prepare macaroni and cheese is to make a rich cheese sauce and heat the macaroni in it. (See p. 23.) The mixture is usually covered with buttered crumbs and browned in the oven. The advantage of this way of preparing the dish, however, is that it is unnecessary to have a hot oven, as the sauce and macaroni may be reheated on the top of the stove.

Boiled macaroni may be heated in tomato sauce and sprinkled with grated cheese just before serving.

Cook the macaroni in the boiling salted water with the onion and cloves. Drain, remove the onion and cloves, reheat in tomato sauce, and serve with grated cheese.

Cook the macaroni in boiling salted water until tender, and rinse in cold water. Cook the parsley, onion, and pepper in a little water with the butter. Pour off the water or allow it to boil away. Beat the egg white and yolk separately. Mix all the ingredients, cutting and folding in the stiffly beaten whites at the last. Line a quart baking dish with buttered paper; turn the mixture into it; set the baking dish in a pan of hot water, and bake in a moderate oven from one-half to three-fourths of an hour. Serve with tomato sauce.

If uncooked rice is used, it should be cooked in 3 cupfuls of milk. Make a sauce with one cupful of milk, add the flour, cheese, and salt. (See p. 23.) Into a buttered baking dish put alternate layers of the cooked rice and the sauce. Cover with buttered crumbs and bake until the crumbs are brown. The proteids in this dish, made with rice cooked in milk, are equal to those of nearly 1¾ pounds of average beef. If skimmed milk is used, the fuel value is equal to nearly 3½ pounds of beef. Whole milk raises the fuel value still higher. Estimated cost (see p. 23), 28 cents.

Cook the rice; put into a buttered baking dish alternate layers of rice and cheese; pour over them enough milk to come halfway to the top of the rice; cover with buttered crumbs and brown.

If the rice is cooked in milk either whole or skimmed, and one cup of milk is used to pour over it, this dish has as much protein as 1¼ pounds of beef of average composition, and a much higher fuel value.

Split the crackers, if the thick sort are selected, or with a sharp knife cut them into pieces of uniform size. Pour the milk over them and drain it off at once. With the milk, flour, cheese, and salt, make a sauce. (See p. 23.) Into a buttered baking dish put alternate layers of the soaked crackers and sauce. Cover with bread crumbs and brown in the oven, or simply reheat without covering with crumbs.

The above is a very satisfactory substitute for macaroni and cheese, and can be prepared in less time.

This is more quickly prepared than the preceding recipe, but as the milk is likely to curdle, it has not so good a consistency.

Soak the crackers in the milk; place them in a buttered baking dish in alternate layers with the cheese; pour the remaining milk over them and bake. This dish may be covered with buttered crumbs. Variety may be secured, in either this recipe or the preceding one, by putting a very small amount of mixed mustard on each cracker.

A large variety of rolls may be made by combining legumes, either beans of various kinds, cowpeas, lentils, or peas, with cheese of various kinds, and adding bread crumbs to make the mixture thick enough to form into a roll. Beans are usually mashed, but peas or small Lima beans may be combined whole with bread crumbs and grated cheese, and enough of the liquor in which the vegetables have been cooked may be added to get the right consistency. Or, instead of beans or peas, chopped spinach, beet tops, or head lettuce may be used. Homemade cottage cheese, and the soft cream cheese of commerce, standard cheese, or English dairy may be used.

Mash the beans or put them through a meat grinder. Add the cheese and sufficient bread crumbs to make the mixture stiff enough to be formed into a roll. Bake in a moderate oven, basting occasionally with butter and water. Serve with tomato sauce. This dish may be flavored with onions, chopped and cooked in butter and water.

Put the first three ingredients through a meat chopper. Mix thoroughly and add bread crumbs until it is stiff enough to form into a roll. Brown in the oven, basting occasionally with butter and water.

Cook the onion in the butter and a little water until it is tender. Mix the other ingredients and moisten with water, using the water in which the onion has been cooked. Pour into a shallow baking dish and brown in the oven.

Cook the spinach in water for 10 minutes. Drain off the water, add the butter, cook until tender, and chop. Add the grated cheese and then bread crumbs enough to make a mixture sufficiently stiff to form into a roll, or leave more moist and cook in a baking dish.

For the spinach of the above recipe there may be substituted beet tops, Swiss chard, or the outer leaves of lettuce.

The mixtures in the preceding two recipes may be used for stuffing veal or beef. Eggs may be added if desired, and chopped onions or parsley may be cooked with the greens. In Italy roasts thus prepared are sprinkled with a little finely chopped garlic, and covered with celery tops and thin slices of bacon or fat pork before roasting.

Make a thin white sauce with the flour and milk and seasonings. Add the cheese and stir until melted. Chop the whites and add them to the sauce. Pour the sauce over the toast, force the yolks through a potato ricer or strainer, sprinkle over the toast.

Break the eggs into a buttered baking dish or into ramekins and cook them in a hot oven until they begin to turn white around the edge. Cover with the mixture of crumbs, cheese, and seasonings. Brown in a very hot oven. In preparing this dish it is essential that the oven be very hot or the egg will be too much cooked by the time the cheese is brown. To avoid this, some cooks cover the eggs with white sauce before adding crumbs.

The food value of the dish is very close to that of a pound of beef of average composition. The estimated cost (see p. 23) is about 14 cents.

For those who are particularly fond of cheese the amount of cheese in this recipe may be very much increased, thus making a much more nourishing dish. Or the amount may be reduced so as to give hardly more than a suggestion of the flavor of cheese.

Beat the eggs slightly, mix them with the other ingredients, and cook over a very slow fire, stirring constantly, so that the cheese may be melted by the time the eggs are cooked. In food value the dish is equal to nearly 2 pounds of average beef. The calculated cost (see p. 23) is about 30 cents.

Heat the butter and cream together, break in the eggs whole, sprinkle with salt and pepper. When nearly done, add the cheese. Serve on buttered toast. Strain the cream over the toast.

Cheese may be introduced into omelets in several ways. An ordinary omelet may be served with thin cheese sauce made in the following proportions:

This sauce may also be added to omelets in which boiled rice, minced meat, or some other nutritious material has been included.

Grated cheese may be sprinkled over an ordinary omelet before it is served.

Beat the yolks until lemon colored and add the hot water and the seasoning. Beat the whites until they are stiff, and add the cheese. Cut and fold the two mixtures together. Heat the butter in omelet pan and cook the mixture very slowly until it is brown on the underside. If possible, cook the top of the omelet in the oven or by means of a hot plate held over it.

That cheese combined with cereal foods makes a rational dish as regards the proportion of nutrients it supplies has been pointed out on another page (p. 18). Cheese and some of the crisp “ready to serve” cereal breakfast foods is a combination which is common, the cheese being melted with the cereal food, or simply served with it.

There are many who relish a piece of cheese with the cooked cereal so commonly eaten for breakfast and find such a combination satisfying to appetite and taste. Oatmeal or some other home-cooked breakfast cereal prepared with cheese is palatable, and such dishes have an advantage in that they may be served without cream and sugar. Since such a dish contains considerably more protein than the breakfast cereals as ordinarily served, it has a further advantage in that it may well serve as the principal item of a breakfast menu, instead of a preliminary to other courses. Such a combination as cereals cooked with cheese, toast, fruit, and tea, coffee, or chocolate, makes a palatable as well as nutritious breakfast and one which does not require much work to prepare and to clear away. A recipe for preparing oatmeal with cheese follows. Wheat breakfast foods, either parched or unparched, corn meal, and hominy may be prepared in the same way.

Cook the oatmeal as usual. Shortly before serving, stir in the butter and add the cheese, and stir until the cheese is melted and thoroughly blended with the cereal.

The cheese should be mild in flavor and soft in texture. The proportion of cheese used may be increased if a more pronounced cheese flavor is desired.

Cheese may be added to corn-meal mush or to mush made from any of the corn or wheat preparations now on the market. The addition of cheese to corn-meal mush is particularly desirable when the mush is to be fried.

Scald the milk with the potassium bicarbonate; add the grated cheese, and stir until it dissolves. Dip the bread in this mixture and fry it in the butter. The potassium bicarbonate helps to keep the cheese in solution. It is desirable, however, to keep the milk hot while the bread is being dipped.

Melt the butter; cook the cornstarch thoroughly, and then the flour in the butter; add the milk gradually; cook three minutes, stirring constantly; add the yolks and one-half cupful of the cheese. Pour into a buttered shallow pan and cool. Cut into squares; place them on a platter a little distance apart; sprinkle with remaining cheese, and brown in the oven.

The proteid value is that of three-fourths of a pound of average beef, the fuel value that of 1¾ pounds. Calculated cost (see p. 23), 17 cents.

Melt the butter; add the flour and, when well mixed, add gradually the scalded milk. Then add salt, cayenne, and cheese. Remove from the fire and add the yolks of the eggs, beaten until lemon colored. Cool the mixture and fold into it the whites of the eggs, beaten until stiff. Pour into a buttered baking dish and cook 20 minutes in a slow oven. Serve at once.

The proteid of this recipe is equal to that of half a pound of beef; the fuel value is equal to that of three-fourths of a pound.

Add the eggs to the cream and beat slightly, then add the cheese and seasoning. Bake 15 minutes in a hot oven, in patty tins lined with puff paste.

Make with a white sauce, using the butter, flour, and the milk. Add the unbeaten yolks and stir until well mixed, then add the grated cheese. As soon as the cheese melts, remove from the fire, fold in the pieces of cheese, and add the seasoning. Spread in a shallow pan and cool. Cut into squares or strips, cover with an egg and crumb mixture, and fry in deep fat.

Beat the whites of the eggs; add the other ingredients; make into balls and roll in cracker dust. If the amount of flour is doubled, the mixture may be dropped from a spoon and fried without being rolled in crumbs.